


Campfire

by MLMDarkFiction



Series: OCtober Shipping [14]
Category: Curse of Strahd - Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: F/M, The Entire Party Dies but they're not mentioned by name and have no actual lines in the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 22:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21043712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MLMDarkFiction/pseuds/MLMDarkFiction
Summary: OCtober Shipping: Day 14- CampfireShip: Izek Strazni x Nitewater





	Campfire

Izek stares across the roaring fire at the party he’s found himself a part of. He didn’t plan on caring about them, and in reality he doesn’t. He only cares about one of them. And the reason why alludes even him. 

The whole point of traveling with the party was added protection in return for finding his sister. But the more he traveled with them, the more he found he no longer cared about finding her. It had been years, he reasoned with himself, of course he would stop wanting to find her eventually. She may not even still be alive, after all, the Barovian wilderness was brutal. Izek knew this first hand. 

But at the end of the day he knows it’s not simply his getting over the disappearance of his sister that has changed his priorities. He knows this because his dreams, the one’s he had since he was a boy and his sister had disappeared, had changed. 

He no longer dreams about his sister, but now he dreams about  _ her _ .

Nite had shown him nothing but kindness from the beginning. That’s what had caught him off guard. The citizens of Vallaki, the Baron, and even the other party members all kept cautious of him both due to his size and intimidating abilities thanks to his demonic arm, but not Nitewater. 

_ Something drew him to her the first moment they’d met. As he led the group around the city of Vallaki he’d seen the way her eyes lingered by the toy shop, and despite himself, later that day when she and her friends were held up at the Blue Water Inn he’d gone back to the toy store, and bought her something from inside. Well...Bought was a strong word. He did as he always did, threatening the clockwork toymaker with burning down his store if he did not give Izek what he wanted.  _

_ But still, the way her eyes lit up when he’d given her the toy, a miniature gallows set with a weighted hanged man, made him feel as if he’d done the right thing.  _

_ “Me? Mine?” She’d asked, and when he’d confirmed she caught him off guard completely by wrapping her arms around him in a hug.  _

_ He didn’t return it at the time. He couldn’t. Izek was far too shocked. Truly, he could not remember the last time showed him true affection, even if this was only from gratitude.  _

Maybe that’s why he’d decided to join them in their journey, more than just wanting to see his sister. He knows what happens to travelers in the mist, Nite and her friends are in no way the first to find themselves in Barovia, and they won’t be the last. 

This land will chew her up and spit her out, and if she survives, there’s no way she’ll be the same. 

That’s why he puts his life on the line to save hers. Everytime. 

Izek never imagined putting the life of someone else above his own. Even the Baron. He thought that if the towns people ever revolted against the Baron, if his men couldn’t quench such a thing, he would leave. Flee with his life into the night. He held no loyalty to men, nor monster. 

_ And yet, he’d gone down in the last battle all to protect her. He’d put himself between the druid and a rabid direwolf, allowing the animal to go for his own throat instead of hers, and although he had managed to cleave the animal in twane with his battle axe, he was still bleeding too hard himself to remain conscious.  _

_   
_ _ He’s not sure what it was that made him come to. Likely a mix of the salty tears hitting his face, or the panicked words a jumble of Common and Elvish, or the way Nite was absolutely shoving berries (From the spell Goodberry) into his mouth. Either way the shock of it all had caused him to panic and shoved her away from him. Sitting up despite the excruciating pain.  _

It was the first time he had scene Nitewater cry, and it was for him. She had cried for him, a man considered by most to be more monster than man. He decided then that he hated to see her cry, especially if he were the cause of it, but he couldn’t, no wouldn’t stop protecting her. 

That’s why when the party says they want to fight Strahd to find a way home, he puts his foot down. They can’t. It’s a deathwish. Many had tried, and died for such a stupid cause. He wouldn’t allow Nite to simply die like all the others because of some silly dream of returning home. 

Their best bet, the parties best bet, was simply to settle down in Barovia living the rest of their lives here, the best they could. 

They don’t listen to Izek. They think that they’re somehow special, somehow better than the countless other adventurers who’ve made their way here, and died here. 

Izek drops it, hands gripped into tight fists, ignoring the urge to use his demon hand right then and there, burning them to a crisp for being willing to so foolishly throw the life of Nitewater away, and ultimately for nothing. 

If they won’t protect her, he will, and he does. 

  
That night Izek takes watch, waiting until the others fall into deep sleep and Nitewater begins to trance, and then he acts. 

It’s easy, like unsuspecting sleeps to the slaughter. He murders them all in their beds, axe cutting throw their necks so quickly they don’t even know it happens. 

There are no screams, no looks of betrayals from a group of people who had accepted Izek as one of their own, and even if there had been, Izek simply doesn’t care. The party were nothing more than a danger, getting in the way of his one true goal. 

He was never one of them, not truly. 

Izek wipes the blade of his weapon clean, sitting across the fire from the unaware trancing Nite. She’ll be upset when she wakes, he knows it, but she can’t be upset forever. 

It was for her own safety after all. Once she is calm, if she calms, they’ll return to Vallaki, somewhere where Izek has status and power. 

Somewhere Izek can keep her locked away and safe, and no one will be the wiser, or at the very least if they are aware, they will be too afraid of Izek to do anything about it. 


End file.
